Tuning In: Rene Rancourt to sing anthem in Worcester on Sunday

While some NHL players have traveled to Europe to play during the lockout, Rene Rancourt is staying closer to home. The Bruins’ national anthem singer for the past 35 years will belt out the Star Spangled Banner and sign autographs before the Worcester Sharks play the Portland Pirates at 3 p.m. Sunday at the DCU Center.

In a cleverly worded press release written by director of public relations and broadcasting Eric Lindquist, the Sharks announced they have signed Rancourt to a one-game ATO (anthem tryout). Call it whatever you want, Rancourt is just glad to have the chance to sing before a professional hockey game again.

“Thank God,” Rancourt said, “for the minor leagues to keep some of the hockey players and even the hockey singers going.”

Rancourt, 73, of Natick, has kept his voice in shape by becoming what he calls a professional wedding crasher. Since the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, people have hired him to sing the anthem at receptions as a surprise to the bride and groom.

“It took a lot of nerve in the beginning,” Rancourt admitted. “The bride and groom have their first dance and all of a sudden the emcee looks up and says, ‘Who is the guy standing in the door?’ I’m there in my tux like Batman. But after I did a couple, I got used to it. It’s difficult to crash a party and not make a fool of yourself.”

Rancourt usually offers to exchange his Stanley Cup ring for the bride’s diamond ring as a joke, but no bride has taken him up on his offer. Nevertheless, wedding guests enjoy taking photos of themselves with Rancourt and his ring. One bridesmaid with a revealing gown even asked Rancourt to autograph what the Bruins’ injury report would list as her “upper body.” Rancourt obliged and called it one of the highlights of his life.

Rancourt has performed the anthem before Merrimack, UMass-Lowell, UConn and other college hockey games. Last Friday, he sang before a Buckingham Browne and Nichols high school game in Cambridge, then rushed off to perform at a Christmas party.

But Sunday will be the first professional hockey game he’ll work since the lockout.

Rancourt and his wife, Maria, used to perform with their own orchestra and he also gave voice lessons to pay the bills. But singing before Bruins games gave him his biggest thrills. He misses them.

“I’m depressed,” Rancourt tells anyone who asks. “I’m the only anthem singer who went from the blue line to the unemployment line.”

Sometimes, people see Rancourt on the street and start singing the Canadian national anthem, “O Canada,” which he belts out in addition to the U.S. anthem when the Bruins play a team from Canada.

Rancourt sang the national anthem on Opening Day at Fenway Park in the 1970s, then received what he called “the biggest singing moment of my life” when he filled in for an ill Kate Smith for Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

“My career has been going down ever since,” Rancourt said. “I’m the only singer to start at the top.”

Before and after each anthem, Rancourt pumps his fist, a move he copied from former Bruin Randy Burridge. After each anthem, he salutes, a tradition he began when an elderly woman called to tell him that she had purchased cable television solely to hear him sing the anthem and as soon as he finishes before each game, she changes the channel.

“I figured I had to salute her from then on,” Rancourt said. “That was the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.”

Rancourt prefers the U.S. over the Canadian anthem because it’s more of a challenge.

“It’s very awkward to sing,” Rancourt said. “It’s difficult because you never know how it’s going to come out because it was not written for the human voice. It was a flute thing.”

Rancourt then blurted out the national anthem as if he were playing a flute.

“If it was easy to sing,” he said, “then you’d have 100,000 guys doing it. So I’m very happy that it’s difficult.”

But he gets more requests to sing “O Canada” at parties.

Rancourt was born in Lewiston, Maine, but he won’t root for Portland Sunday.

“I have to root for the guy who gives me the check,” he said.

Rancourt doesn’t expect the lockout to end anytime soon.

“My thought is that they’re not coming back,” Rancourt said. “I have that feeling, but I thought the Patriots were going to lose (Monday), so what do I know?”

Worcester native Sam James, a former contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” will sing during the first intermission.

Lindquist broadcasts all Sharks games live on 580AM and 94.9FM WTAG, as well as online through AHL Live, which can be found by following the link on the Sharks website, www.sharksahl.com.

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